Sunday, August 17, 2003

By Ken Chiacchia

A new proposal for moving Mars Area elementary pupils in 2004-05 met with mostly negative reaction from the community Tuesday.

Superintendent William Pettigrew suggested keeping kindergarten through second grade in Mars Primary Center, placing all third- and fourth-graders in Adams Elementary, and turning Middlesex Elementary into a school that would house only fifth-graders.

District officials have said a redistribution of pupils would improve curriculum and enable the district to avoid hiring additional teachers. In June, the board reversed an earlier vote to approve a plan that included a similar shift of pupils but kept kindergartners at Middlesex. The about-face came in response to intense community complaints. The board at the time retained a plan to move all third-graders to Adams Elementary this year.

At Tuesday's meeting, Lori Gloninger, of Mars, questioned whether the plan might prove to be a short-term fix. Elementary teacher Jody Harbison said isolating the fifth-grade pupils was not in their best interest. Lisa Lamantia, of Middlesex, had questions about busing issues.

Pettigrew said the latest proposal would need to be finalized and approved by the school board.

The board postponed votes on student field trips and band instrument purchases in the coming year for at least a month. The hope is that the state will pass legislation providing for school funding before the board must vote on such expenditures.

School board President David Howes said he wanted to ensure the requests were acted on before February or March so that students would still have time to raise funds for the trips.

High school Vice Principal Todd Kolson told the board that he'd like to review and revise procedures for enforcing the school attendance policies because he believes the district isn't enforcing the policy properly.

Kolson said he didn't believe changes in the actual policy were needed, but he noted that, under current procedures, students can be up to five periods late in an eight-period day and still get credit for the whole day. He said that, beginning with the upcoming school year, he wanted to give students credit for a full day only if they were in school for at least six periods. Students who attended more than four but less than six periods in a school day would be credited for a half day.

While Kolson advocated a tighter interpretation of the rules, he warned the board that stricter enforcement of the policy might decrease the district's attendance rates, possibly causing a problem with state reimbursements under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Since the matter would not require a change in policy, the board took no action.

Ken Chiacchia is a freelance writer.

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